Nap

Have you let her cry for a few minutes after that 45 minutes? I read the book BABYWISE and it even mentions the "45 minute intruder" and how that's when a baby's body changes sleep cycles. So for the first 45 min they're in a deep sleep, then after 45 minutes, they change cycles and often wake up, but will fall back asleep on their own (or should). Google it, or get the book.

I am not a co-sleeper, my kids go to their beds the first day home from the hospital, and sleep through the night as early as 6wks old. So if you are looking to move away from co-sleeping, I would recommend the book Baby Wise. If you do decide to do sleep training, make sure you stick to you guns because if you give up half way through it will make it twice as hard the next time you try. It is important for all of you to get good sleep so you can function. I would start immediately so you have your routines worked out before going back to work.

Is she nursing on demand?
Is she teething?
Is she over tired?
All of these things, can affect sleep.

Also at this age juncture, it is a growth-spurt time and often teething happens, and also the baby is hitting milestones per motor skills and cognitive awareness.
All combined, this tweaks a baby's sleep. And ability for that.

Nurse, before naps and sleep. Then on-demand 24/7. Intake has to keep up with baby. They are growing a ton.

When are you putting her to nap?
A baby this young, typically gets tired after waking, after about 2 hours of being awake.

If over-stimulated, they also have a harder time sleeping or falling asleep.

Even during the night, feed on demand.
At growth-spurts, they get hungrier and feed more frequently.

And if she is teething, then well its hard for them. It wakes them too.
Or does she have gas? If so then Mylicon Infant gas drops helps a lot.

Also, where does she nap?
Is it quiet?
My daughter for example, would only nap AT home, IN her crib. Or I co-slept with her.
My son, would ONLY nap, AT home.
My kids were not 'portable' nappers. They would NOT nap, outside on the go or in a stroller or in a car. ONLY at home, they would nap.

Also for my daughter as a baby, it had to be QUIET. She was noise sensitive. Even a toilet flushing down the hall, would wake her.

Also, IF your baby sorta wakes and tosses/turns, then just wait. She may go back to sleep on her own. Babies, do toss and turn or make noises while sleeping. Or intermittently. But it may not mean... that they are awake awake. Just intermittent noises. But IF your baby is thus screaming/crying and AWAKE, then try and soothe her... before fully waking her and picking her up.
My son, at that age, would routinely make noises/sort of wake 1 hour into his nap...but if I let him go about his own rhythms, he WOULD go back to sleep. And he napped for 2 hours. Still does. BUT if I interrupted his rhythms, he would awake... and not wake well.
I KNEW his sounds.

I know you must want to co sleep but I had 8 children and all slept in their own beds and only the first one cried at first, the others learned from the beginning and went to bed and slept all night. I got sleep. I would recommend doing that if you want them to learn to sleep well and have sleep yourself even though having a cuddly little baby by you all night is nice. Just my opinion.

Dear Zombie,

Co-sleeping is not the answer for everyone. Put your child in her own bed in her own room (if possible).

After dinner (between 6:30 and 8 PM), give her a warm bath, hold and read to her for a while, put her down by 9 - 10:30 PM and if she wake up in the night, let her be for a while. If there is too much fussing, go to her (without picking her up)....check the diaper, comfort her and cover her, say "good night, mommy will see you in the morning". After a while she will have a NEW routine...sleep through the night and you will no longer be a zombie.

Keep us posted.

Blessings.....

My son also had short naps @ 6 months. I think one thing that affects naps is how late the baby sleeps in and how late a baby goes to bed. Have you tried an early bedtime and waking up by 7am? I was very keen on my son's sleeping in, but it did affect his naps. Also, as he got older, he just needed less nighttime sleep. I came to realize that he would only sleep so much in a 24 hour period. Once I knew the total sleep he needed, I could see how more sleep at night would mean less during the day or vice versa.

She may be overtired and need extra soothing. You can sleep train, just put her down extra early to give her lots of time to wind down. Also, try dimming the lights and keeping a relaxing atmosphere as you near bedtime.

Try to find a kind soul who will come and give you a break for a nap. Also ,if you can, set up shifts with your husband for nighttime. You have to rotate the duties so there is a chance you both get some continuous blocks of sleep, even if they are short. Earplugs help with this...

Just read the above post and I concurr...there is definitely a partial arousing that happens around 45 minutes. I always made sure not to be too loud around that 45 min mark, or to let a little fussing happen.

The one thing I remember from Dr. Marc Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" is that babies will often sleep better when you put them down *earlier* because if they're over-tired, they have more difficulty settling down and will not sleep as soundly (think of how your own body feels when you're over -tired - after having to force yourself to stay awake for a while, you're physically exhausted but too wound up to fall asleep right away). So it could be worth trying to put her to bed 15-30 minutes earlier - when you see actual tired signs like rubbing eyes your LO is quite probably over-tired already.
Like the PPs said - co-sleeping isn't for everyone so if that's not working for you, don't feel guilty for trying to move your LO back to her own crib. And IME some kids are short nappers - I have twin girls and one of them was a 40-45 minute napper like your DD while her sister was a 1 hour or more napper.
Check your library for different sleep books - just like with potty training there are a variety of "methods" and there's no one-size-fits-all method that'll suit everyone. But I'd strongly caution anyone about BabyWise - IMO the authors are a bit too smug and basically insinuate that any parent who doesn't follow their rigid sleep schedule will end up with not only a poor sleeper but a spoiled brat who thinks the world revolves around him/her, and there are far too many cases of failure to thrive associated with well meaning parents who tried to follow this method literally.

Hi! I have a 4 year old and a 3 yr old and I did sleep training with both my kiddos and I followed a pretty routine schedule with them. I never did cosleeping when they were infants, but now my older daughter and I will nap together on days when I can make that happen for myself. My youngest daughter hates sleeping with me or my husband and loves her own bed. LOL. I remember my oldest going through a 45 minute nap phase. Very frustrating! Part of the reason that she is might be taking short naps is that she is overtired from being up at night. I know that sounds contradictory but "the books" say that too and lack of sleep is a vicious cycle.

With that, I am an avid believer in sleep training. With my first child I did training at 3.5 months old. We went cold turkey on the pacifier and swaddling because she kept spitting it out and crying until we came in to put it back in her mouth. First night of training she slept 9 hours, but it took a lot of crying and basic back pat/shooshing soothing at 5 minute intervals. The second night the soothing took less time and she slept 10 hours. The third night I went in twice to sooth and she slept 11.5 hours. It wasn't perfect all the time and around 6.5 months we had to do a sleep training refresher. I think we did it again around 9 or 10 months. So it seems like every 3 months or so they change so much developmentally that they need the refresher.

See what you can do to get her to sleep more at night and you might see a change in her nap sleep habits. Good luck!

Co-sleeping was always a disaster for us with our 1st baby. We finally established a good sleeping routine for him using the Ferber method. Read his book "solving your child's sleep problem". It took us about 2 weeks total, but every night got progressively better, and we have a GREAT sleeper now.

We have 4 kids and our youngest is 6 WEEKS old. He sleeps from 9pm-3am every night. (I've co-slept with all of my babies.) Here's what I have found that helps:

I breastfeed, so I take extra Calcium/Magnesium (not all are created equal) so that the baby can sleep. calcium is a natural nervous system relaxant. Without the calcium, my kids don't sleep....or nearly as well. For my friend's whose kids aren't breastfed, I've recommended them give their babies 1/2 tspn of liquid calmag at night around dinner or before bed. ALL of them sleep like crazy. This is not a drug, so it takes time for the calcium levels in the blood to come back up, and then you'll see some changes.

That being said, our 2nd baby took only ONE nap each day from 6 weeks on. This was a FAR cry from our 1st, who slept for 2 hours and then napped for 2 hours during the day, then he slept ALL night....from 7:30pm - 6:30am....breastfeeding, as we coslept, but he never actually woke up.

Our 3rd breastfed every 2 hours until she was 18 months old. I even left her with a friedn at 14 months old for 8 hours and she refused any food. She wanted nothing but breastmilk...so she had nothing but breatmilk until I cut her off at 18 months. At that point, she started to sleep through the night. Go figure.

I had another girlfriend recently who was giving her daughter the calcium (Blue Bonnett or Lifetime blueberry flavor, which is what I recommend), and it helped, but not enough. (She, herself, is taking a really good calmag supplement.) We figured out that it was her manganese deficiency that she had, and so slight it was insignificant to her pediatrician. The mom is still BFing, so she started taking a BUNCH and her daughter started sleeping ALL night. She had planned on starting sleep training 2 nights later...but didn't need to.

I agree, she might be teething. Hyland's Natural Teething gel is the best stuff. Pain relief, no numbing, no bad taste.
Feel around in her mouth to see if her gums are swollen, or if any teeth have broken through. Can be pretty miserable. If so, give her some infant tylenol too.

Watch for her signs that she is getting tired. Suddenly fussy, rubbing her eyes, yawning, and when she does, try putting her in her crib and walk out. If she cries, let her for a minute. If she continues, re-settle her, and try it again.

You can always rock her too.

At that age my son still loved his swing, and bouncer and would fall asleep in them. Try that and see if it helps.

Best wishes!

Can you tell if she has any food intolerances? My first baby could not tolerate milk. I gave up ice cream (and all other dairy) for a whole year while I nursed her. A friend of mine, she avoided eggs, tomatoes and spicy food for this reason. When kids are uncomfortable, they can't sleep, and an upset, gassy tummy is one of those reasons. another friends daughter was four by the time they figured out she had food intolerances, and she diagnosed herself! The child NEVER SLEPT and they just thought that was how she was, until she declared that she did not want milk with her dinner because it hurt her tummy. Poor kid. Try keeping a food journal and eliminate lots of foods that you think might be triggers for your baby. It may take a few days to "clean out" your system from the food that is bothering her. Just eat really bland food, rice, apples, chicken, zucchini - the stuff that hardly anyone has problems with. AVOID - dairy, wheat, eggs, beans, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, spicy stuff, soy, chocolate (sorry), nuts, and all common allergens. if you eat really bland, for a week or so, you just might discover that she sleeps better. Add foods back into your diet (if you dare!) and keep track of what you eat and how your baby reacts. Use the next month for your little science experiment and see what you can discover! GOOD LUCK!!! btw: I never co-slept with either of my kids. They always slept in their own beds.